Panel Discussion to honour Martin Luther King Day

Last week I had went to the panel discussion held at the KCIC that highlighted the impacts that both Martin Luther King and President Obama have made on the Annapolis Valley.  The panel had several high school students on one side and on he other side had elders that have made an impact in many different places through out the Valley.  For moderator,  Dr. Wanda Bernard spoke. It was a delight to hear Dr, Bernard speak, you could tell she had a very strong and intelligent opinion on the impact of these two remarkable African-American leaders.  I was very glad that Dr. Alexander had asked us to attend this Discussion.  I got the chance to hear from some of the students from the valley about how racism still affects them in high school. It makes me feel disgusted that people still have something inside of them to make little comments about African-American's that are really not needed.  However I did enjoy the elders making it a point to say that it is important to have good leaders and role model's for younger children.  I really do have a great feeling that on day there will be none of this racism in schools.  With the way things change everyday, days to come will be better.

Reflective Journal

This week in the I read a chapter in our seminar book titled " How Golf and Lasagna Changed My Life of The Kanehsatake Resistance of 1990" written by Greg Hill.  This chapter is Greg talking about his experience during the time of the resistance.  At the time he had been on summer break before going into his last year of his degree of Fine Arts in London, Ontario.  When Greg got back to school he had decided to make art on how he was feeling.  For him this was his way on dealing with the situation.  In the book there are several of his paintings, and him describing each one of them.  One that really stuck out to me was one titled "Mohawk Territory".  It it a painting that has several different aspects consisted within it.  It has then been torn apart and pieced back together.  I find it tells a lot about the whole situation and makes you really think about what you are looking at. 

Beyond the Text 

In class the Plato, a ancient greek philosopher was brought up.  This is a painting of Plato and Aristotle, it comes from a larger painting of the "School of Athens" painted by Raphael. These two greek philosophers are the central focal point,  as they were a major part of the time.  They both carry books, that at the time were ones they had just written.  These two influenced how we see politics today.  I don't have much knowledge on either on of these philosopher's however I have heard many quotes from Plato, one that comes to mind is “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”.  This is saying that you can really see a person for who they are when they are in action, such as playing.  The reason for this is because they can let their guard down much easier when they are in this state of mind than that of having a conversation with someone because you are aware of what comes out of your mouth.  I think it would be interesting to study that of which Plato has written. 

BONUS

I went to hear Dr. John Reid speak about the Maritime Treaties and the relation to the more recent movement of Idle No More.  Dr. Reid had given a brief description of the history of the treaties and mostly of the native communities of the Maritimes.  He stated that most of the other provinces are unlike how the Maritimes used to be, as they did not have treaties within their native communities and non-native communities.  He highlighted that the treaties were focused on friendship.  Not just a simple friendship, but yet one that is deep, strong and really means something.  He went on with saying that the friendship we used to share with the indigenous people has faded off by a significant amount.  Idle No More movement is one was that the indigenous people are trying to get back that friendship and not let the government take what the indigenous people have left.  It was a great experience listening to Dr. Reid, I left the room with much more knowledge than I did going in. 

Research Quest

http://www.peacebuild.ca/en/

We had the pleasure to have Dr. Rick Wallace speak and have a discussion with our class the other day.  He has his PhD in Peace building, and for our research quest we were asked to find a website highlighting the peacebuilding in our own country of Canada.  I simply found a website that the government of Canada has made that has tons of information on what Canada is doing towards Peacebuilding.  It also gives history on the peace building in Canada, what we can do to make a change and what is being done around the world.  I found this the one website that is very good if you were looking for information.  I wish that we could have heard a bit more of the experiences that Dr. Rick Wallace has had through peace building in Canada.  It would be great to hear him speak again. 

Reflective Journal

This week I had watched the Documentary Kaneshsatake: 270 Years of Resistance; about the Oka crisis, which was a dispute between land that had belonged to the Mohawk people of Oka, small town of Quebec.  This documentary is the taping of the days in which the Mohawk people had been upset with the people of Oka after planning on opening a golf course on the pine land and burial ground of the Mohawks.  After getting no where talking with people about this matter, they protested by putting up barricades getting into the golf course.  This then lead the government to send in police to make sure things were under control.  This film gives us the insight of what it was like for the Mohawks during this time.  They were treated very poorly, however they were fighting for their land as well. Watching this movie was very eye opening.  Since we are also reading the book, "This is an Honour Song", which is full of many different chapters all about different outlooks of the Oka Crisis, this movie makes me understand much more of what I am reading.

Research Quest 

This weeks research quest was to find out why Al Gore recently sold his TV network to Al Jazeera.
From my searching the best website I came across was that of:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/07/opinion/kurtz-gore-al-jazeera/index.html

This CNN Opinion talks about how Al Gore has been crazy with choosing the sell the network, especially to Al Jazeera.  They believe that they will have people to watch this network with the new owners, however they are worried with what information they want to share with the public; believing that they are not giving the real truth, or just showing what will make news. Al Jazeera is an Arabic news station that has more recently created a Al Jazeera English channel.

However, the real reason on why Al Gore was so determined to sell this network before the new year was because he didn't want to have to pay the taxes that were due to raise by Obama's tax hike.  The sale was not finalized until January 2nd, meaning he still has to pay the new taxes.  Even though he did not make the date, this did not matter because he still made a great deal of money off of his sale.

Beyond the Text

Marty Two Bulls, 'Idle No More'

I came across this political cartoon while I was searching the Indian Country Today Media Network for information on the Idle No More movement.  To me this cartoon is a very good portray of what I am in understanding of the conflict of Idle No More.  The indigenous people of Canada simply want Prime Minister Harper to see what he is really doing by implementing the Bill c-45.  They are standing up for their rights, land, and as well as the environmental issues that will be disturbed within this Bill.  This movement has struck all the other issues that are within the Native communities.  Youth are playing a large role in the movement, using several social media sites to get their word across.  As well many Chiefs of native communities and as well as many others in the communities are doing several things like flash mob round dances.  This cartoon is displaying the strength of the native population of Canada,  how they will prove themselves.  It will be very interesting to see what the outcome of the "Idle No More" movement will have within Canada.